Mr Croydon’s Senior School Blog 5th May 2017

This may have been a shorter week in terms of days in school, but as you would expect, it has been a very busy week for pupils and staff. Exams have been part of the focus this week as Year 13 art exams have been taking place over the course of three days not to mention of course, the build-up to the Year 11 English Reading Passages exam which, for many, is the first external public examination of exam period. I am sure pupils will have benefitted from the additional English revision sessions delivered this morning by the English department, and I thank them for all they have done in preparing the pupils for this exam. Outcomes in this subject are now beyond our control, but nevertheless, I wish all the pupils all the best for today’s exam, and all those to follow.

As has been mentioned previously, Key Stage 3 exam week is set for the week commencing 22nd May, and teachers will be ensuring pupils are clear about what topics are required to be revised in preparation.

Being out on Monday, there was of course just the one assembly this week, which was delivered to Key Stage 3 pupils by their Phase Leader, Mr Rayner. The content centred on what it means to be part of a team, providing pupils with some very good examples of successful teams and why they are so. All pupils were left in no doubt as to the how they can be a successful team player in school, and how it will help them to succeed.

Some of our talented athletes were out of school for much of Wednesday as they competed in the CSSP Senior Athletics at the Garrison track. Male and female teams were put forward, and events comprised both track and field. I know Mr Dowson will feedback more via his newsletter, but I thank him for both organising and officiating, as well as wishing him and his teams all the best for the next week as they will take part in the ISA regionals. Many of you will know that performance in the regionals can lead to qualifying for the nationals, so it is very important our athletes perform to the best of their ability.

When I have dropped in on lessons this week to check on behaviour and engagement, or formally observe teaching staff, I have noted pupils engaged in: studying medieval towns; discussing variations in the environment; investigating how to measure the volume of irregular objects; plotting and analysing scatter graphs; programming using Python; designing and making a mobile phone cover – amongst many other topics of study and activities.

Aside from the above, I have also spent some time in meetings with pupils, parents, Heads of Departments, Phase Leaders and my colleagues within the Senior Leadership Team for reviewing, planning and quality assessing.

Next week, Year 8 and 9 girls are set to have their HPV vaccination, and there are also a number of sporting fixtures which are imminent.

Finally from me this week, I am going to mention the Blue Whale challenge or game which some of you may have already come across in the media. There are certainly some conflicting reports, and some commentators dispute the existence of the ‘game’. However, there have been many schools and police forces around the country which have been alerting parents to be aware of this ‘game’ which asks teenagers to engage in an escalating series of self-harm challenges which culminate in suicide. A simple internet search will direct you to a number of articles from which you can be better informed.